Tottenham and Napoli will go head to head for £35m signature of Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi.
The Italy international has been tracked by Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus this summer but Villarreal have so far refused to sell their marquee name.
Napoli’s president has gone on record to state his admiration for the former Manchester United youngster, and could rival any bid that arises from White Hart Lane.
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp, who failed in an attempt to sign Rossi in January, has been keeping close tabs on the 24-year-old’s situation and watched as the striker’s proposed move to Juventus collapsed.
Redknapp is determined not to miss out on the forward this time round as he looks to freshen up his strike force after seeing Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko manage just 17 Premier League goals between them last season.
Rossi recently spoke of his respect for Napoli but would jump at the opportunity to return to the Premier League, according to sources close to the player.
Spurs will offload Peter Crouch and Wilson Palacios to Stoke for £20m to partly finance the deal.
According to the Daily Mail, Redknapp is prepared to offload wantaway midfielder Luka Modric to fund the signing of up to three strikers, but chairman Daniel Levy is keen to keep the Croat.
The North London club have been linked with several big-name forwards this summer including Athletic Bilbao’s Fernando Llorente, Atletico Madrid’s Diego Forlan and Porto’s Radamel Falcao.
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